A day in the life of press tour '12: ABC

After a couple of light days at the tour involving channels I don't usually write about or set visits to shows I don't watch, press tour gets back into full swing today with a visit from ABC. As I like to do on certain tour days, here's a run-down of who and what will be here so you have some sense of what the day is like, and also on what may be appearing on HitFix today and tomorrow.

9 a.m.: "Nashville," the new primetime soap about the country music business. The panel includes stars Connie Britton (Mrs. Coach, y'all!) and Hayden Panettiere (playing, essentially, Taylor Swift) and creator Callie Khouri, among others.

9:45 a.m.: An executive session with Paul Lee. As of the time I'm writing this, the "Modern Family" salary dispute has yet to be resolved, though reports yesterday suggested resolution was close. But unless the deals are actually signed this morning, I suspect Lee will spend the bulk of his time on stage answering questions about that (even though it's a dispute between the actors and the studio, not between the actors and ABC) rather than plugging the new shows. Fienberg will be live-blogging, and I'll be doing analysis shortly thereafter.

10:45 a.m.: A "Dancing with the Stars" panel previewing the upcoming all-star season. Tom Bergeron will be there, and the cast will be announced. Liane will be writing this one up, for sure.

11:30 a.m.: "The Neighbors," which at one time was going to air after "Modern Family" before cooler heads prevailed and swapped its timeslot with "Suburgatory."

12:15 p.m.: Lunch/writing break

1:30 p.m.: "666 Park Avenue," the new supernatural soap opera. We'll have stars Terry O'Quinn, Vanessa Williams, Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable, plus two producers.
2:15 p.m.: Reba and friends for the very old-fashioned sitcom "Malibu Country," which is one of those panels that may or may not turn into a referendum on the place of the multi-camera sitcom in 2012.

3 p.m.: "How to Live with Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life)," one of two ABC mid-season shows being paneled today because it will premiere before the next press tour. This one's got Sarah Chalke, Brad Garrett and Elizabeth Perkins on the stage.

3:45 p.m.: "Family Tools" is the other mid-season one, and we'll have Kyle Bornheimer, J.K. Simmons and Leah Remini, among others.

5:15 p.m.: A panel for what's by far my favorite new network show of the fall, the submarine thriller "Last Resort." We'll have the great Andre Braugher and several co-stars (including Scott "Ben" Speedman and Autumn "Taylor Townsend" Reeser), plus creators Shawn Ryan and Karl Gajdusek.

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

"The River" was the only thing I've watched on ABC in years, and naturally only about 35 others watched it. Any chance they'll work with the producers again? It seemed surprisingly daring for a usually conservative network.